Note: I love Eclare. I really do. But I found it so stupid that Eli seems to want to have sex with Clare and then he disses her. Yes, he cares about her. But she realized she wants to take a risk for him because she loves him. And he's fucked Julia senseless before. Why can't he spend the night with Clare if she wants to? Eli's starting to piss me off with this whole Julia thing. And that's why I wrote this. To take out my anger on him the way Clare probably won't.

Search and Search

Take a second out to think about this: in your life you search and search for the right person for you. Every time you break up with someone, you get one step closer to that person. You should look at moving on as getting closer to meeting the one. ~Ian Philpot

Tears decorated pale cheeks, sparkling lightly in the sunlight. The sounds of the world disappeared; the children playing hopscotch on the sidewalk, the woman with a child's arm in one hand and a cell phone on the other, the old couple crossing the street laggardly... The only thing on her mind was the earlier fight.

According to him, she had beliefs. According to him, she didn't know what she wanted. According to him, this was not the right thing for her. According to her, he did not want her.

As she pedaled home, she couldn't help but think of what he had said during her weakest moments. He said he would always be there for her, that he loved her, that he wasn't going anywhere. But she felt them drifting apart as he said those words to her.

She could tell; his past was still not out of his mind. He had slept with his past, after all. Night after night after night. And though he 'didn't know she existed yet', she knew that even now, he couldn't forget his past. The past was in him forever. And he had been inside the past before.

Of course, he had enjoyed it. She was willing to be the past was deliciously enticing. Voluptuous, tall. Dark hair, most likely. She imagined the past to have hazel eyes, almond shaped and very alluring. Probably with a large chest and long legs. A lot more… entertaining, should we say? A lot more entertaining than she was.

Now he couldn't get the past out of his head. He did not want her. No matter how much he said he did, she wasn't fooled. It was time for her to cut and run before she got hurt.

It always seemed to her that the love she pursued never loved back. Her past had not wanted her, and now her present did not want her either.

Was she damned to be unlucky in romance like her sister and her parents before her? Or would she ever find the right one?

For the moment, she knew she hadn't found the right one. Not yet.

It was not K.C. and it was not Eli.

It was not someone she'd loved or met.

It was someone far in the future.

Or maybe it was no one.

And surprisingly... she didn't give a damn.

Clare looked up at the classroom before her.

"Well, Clare…" Mrs. Dawes turned her hands nervously. Clare Edwards had never given her such an insightful and angry piece before.

"I thought it was fantastic," Clare stated bluntly, "and I think I finally gave you what you asked for. Is it personal enough? Can you hear my voice in this piece?"

Mrs. Dawes blinked a couple of times and nodded. Edwards had gotten a sudden urge of courage. She never expected to be drawn into such a depth in Clare's life.

"Thank you, Clare. Now sit, please."

Clare handed the piece of paper to Mrs. Dawes and returned to her desk, picking up a folder and pulling out a piece of paper.

"Clare, what-"

"Here," she placed the paper on Eli's desk, "I printed one out for you too."

Clare picked up her bag and exited the classroom, Mrs. Dawes barely calling out to her as she left.

Eli looked down at the paper, Clare's piece printed neatly on it. But something pulled his attention before he could finish reading it.

Scribbled at the bottom of the page, read the words:

'We're over'.